the space between
by arsonistlullaby
Summary: Seth proposes to Kate - at least Kate thinks that's what happened? Because after that, all she can think about is keeping him alive.


Also posted on AO3 under the same username. I don't own From Dusk Till Dawn or any of its characters.

Written as a request for thecrosby-chronicles on tumblr. With enough interest there may or may not be a part two to this.

* * *

"So this is probably not the time, but… marry me?" It slips off his tongue accidentally, leaving his lips and lingering in the air that fills space between them before either of them have realized that he's even spoken.

They are crouched behind the wall near the door of an abandoned warehouse, hiding from a local gang they've angered by encroaching on their territory, and waiting for Richard to show up with the getaway car.

Seth gazes at her through the dark, as though all he's asked is what she wants for dinner, but there is this softness behind the informality of it that stops her, anchors her to his stare.

She is still processing his question, trying to consider whether he's even serious, when there's a screeching of tires outside and Seth rises to his feet to check if it's Richie.

"Get back to me on that, alright?" he says, almost nonchalant. He steps out onto the street, hesitant and cautious, before she can even think to give him an answer.

Then a gun fires, and she's out the door before she can help herself. A black car drives off, leaving them behind, dust and dirt settling in the air. Her attention immediately shifts to where Seth is laying on the floor with a bullet wound in his shoulder, already bleeding out onto the pavement.

Kate chokes out a muffled cry and falls to her knees beside him, and the sound of her own voice is so far away. Hot tears pool behind her eyes, but she wills them not to fall, focusing instead on trying to find a way abate Seth's bleeding. Her hands shake as they press firmly against the wound, her hands already covered in his blood.

He groans something unintelligible and starts to lift his head. She pushes him down, careful not to hurt him, but with enough force to keep him from trying to move again.

"Don't," she tells him, trying to compose herself. "Don't even move. Richard will be here any second and… And we'll go get you help. You'll be fine. You are gonna be fine."

She can't really tell who she's trying to reassure.

Richard arrives to the scene seconds later, stumbling out of the driver's seat as soon as the car grinds to a halt.

"What the hell happened?"

"What the hell does it look like?" she snaps at him with a tone normally she normally has reserved for his brother. "Help me get him into the car. We have to find him help."

Richard just looks at her. "In the middle of the night? In Nowhere, Mexico?"

This time the agitation in her voice is intentional. "Well, someone's going to have to help us, Richard. Fucking help me."

He doesn't argue with her this time, just does what he's told.

Kate climbs into the backseat of the car with Seth's head on her lap. His eyes are squeezed tightly, face grimaced with pain. A vivid memory of a bullet entering her back rushes to the front of her mind. The pain was so instant, so brief, but unlike anything she'd ever known before. She can't imagine what it must be like for Seth right now, who hasn't even blacked out, to have to actually feel everything.

She applies pressure to the gunshot wound using a spare t-shirt that had luckily been left on the floor of the vehicle, burying her hands beneath the fabric of his jacket.

Richard starts driving, hitting the pedal with presumably all the force he could manage without kicking a hole through the floor of the car.

There had been a woman Kate met a few towns over who had the reputation of being a healer - she'd been a nurse when she lived in Texas, before being deported back home. She'd taken a liking to Kate almost instantly, but didn't seem to care for either of her male counterparts very much.

Still, right now, she's their best bet. A group of fugitives can't exactly wander into any hospital without consequences.

"Go back to Cuetzalan," she tells Richard.

"Where?"

"Cuetzalan. We drove through it the other day," she reminds him. "I made you guys stop there because of the waterfall."

"Oh, yeah. Why there?"

Her focus is locked on Seth, who she can tell is beginning to weave in and out of consciousness. She can feel Richard's reflection watching her through the rearview mirror.

"Rubia Cortez. She used to be a nurse in Dallas. She'll help us."

"She will?" Richard sounds doubtful. "From what I remember, cabrones isn't exactly a term of endearment."

"She probably won't be thrilled about it, but she'll do it. I know she will."

"What's our backup plan if she refuses to?"

Kate looks up at him, watches him drive through the darkness ahead of them. It feels endless.

"She's not going to let Seth die just because she thinks he's an asshole. Which, no offense, but you both totally are. Would it kill you to be nicer to people?"

Richard chooses to ignore that. "If all else fails…"

He doesn't have to finish his sentence for her to know what he's implying. There are other ways to save him.

"That is not happening. You are not changing him. Seth would rather die." She looks at him, now unconscious from what she assumes is the blood loss. His face is pale and his breathing has somewhat weakened, and she can't get an accurate feel for his pulse because her own is still racing.

The rest of the car ride is silent after that, because they both know she's right. They both know their options are limited, and that the only reality neither of them want to imagine is one of the only other alternatives there are.

By the time they arrive in Cuetzalan, dawn is nearly on the horizon. Kate prays that they still have time. She directs Richard down the narrow street she remembers Rubia's family delicatessen being on; they'd all lived in a small apartment right above it.

"I'll handle this," Kate says, sliding out of the car. "Get over here and apply some pressure to his shoulder."

Trying to ignore the fact that she is a bundle of nerves, Kate lets out a deep breath and heads up the side steps leading up to the apartment. She pounds on the door with very little hesitation.

The door opens minutes later, and the woman she'd came to see is standing before her, her tired eyes widening upon recognizing Kate.

"Kate? What is going on?"

"I am so sorry to bother you," Kate responds, doing her best to get her thoughts into words. Her mind still feels tilted. "So, so sorry. I really need your help."

Rubia steps back to let her into the apartment, but Kate shakes her head.

"No. My… the man I was with… he's been shot. He has lost so much blood. There has to be something you can do. You're the only person I can think of who can help us."

"What's wrong with a hospital?"

"I'll explain later. I promise. I just… He really, really needs help. Please." She hates herself for it and kind of feels like she's manipulating an innocent stranger, but she fears that if Rubia knew about their criminal status, she would definitely refuse to help Seth.

She agrees with a long and heavy sigh. "Can you get him up the stairs?"

"Gracias, gracias, gracias," Kate says.

With a lot of effort on both their ends, Kate and Richard manage to get Seth up and into Rubia's apartment. Her couch is pulled out into a bed and covered with towels and old sheets. She instructs them to lay Seth down there.

Richard excuses himself as the sun becomes more persistent, and retreats to the car, where he can safely hide behind the tinted windows and beneath the blanket they kept in the backseat. But Kate sits in one of the kitchen chairs just feet away from where Rubia is tending to Seth's wound.

So much of his blood stains the sheets she'd laid out for him, as well as the shirt he'd been wearing that Rubia had torn off and thrown onto the ground.

So much of the same blood that saved her life so many moons ago; the same blood that pulses through her veins.

"Has he lost too much blood?" she's almost too afraid to ask. She knows from volunteering at her local blood bank back in Bethel that she has the universal blood type, which means Seth does too, considering he successfully Macgyvered his own transfusion in that chapel. But she isn't willing to place her bets on the chances of Rubia having anything just laying around that could help them.

Rubia avoids her gaze. "I think if I can get this stitched up, he'll be okay."

Kate tries to let out a sigh of relief, but the relief gets stuck in her throat, because all that comes out of her is pure exhaustion.

Rubia gets to work immediately. She cleans up the surface of the wound before grabbing a large tweezer and digging into the gash with careful precision; after a moment, she pulls out the tiny bullet that had still been lodged in Seth's shoulder.

"Do you want to tell me why you brought this pendejo here and instead of to a hospital, where they can actually help him?"

"We're all trying to lay low. We're not… We're not exactly in the law's good graces," Kate confesses.

"Forgive me if I don't seem surprised," Rubia replies. "But it figures. Don't tell me he's killed someone."

Kate can't answer that question honestly, even if it's not exactly the reason half of the Mexican state of Puebla is after them.

She supplies Rubia with half the story and tells her about the bank they'd held up at the state capital and the heat they acquired as a result, which incidentally leads to the reason why stepping foot inside a hospital is a bad idea. She tells her about the smaller town they fled to, where they decided they'd lay low for awhile; until Seth and Richard realized it was teeming with underground crime and mistakenly got themselves involved, which incidentally and ultimately led to the bullet in Seth's shoulder.

"You seem like too sweet a girl to be involved with all of this," Rubia says afterward, clicking her tongue in disappointment. "Are these men really worth your future?"

"They're my family, Rubia," she says after a moment.

Kate knows what people see when they look at her; a young girl with a good heart. And in a lot of ways, that's still who she is. But sometimes the things you do have very little to do with how sweet you are.

"So, where is your family? Who lives here with you?" Kate shifts the focus of conversation, feeling guilty for having taken up so much space in the Cortez living area.

"My sister and her children. They're visiting the twins' father in the city, so they're not home. They have a trial separation going on," she says like she's not entirely sure what's happening with the situation.

A feeling Kate understands entirely.

"There," Rubia says, rising to her feet and stepping back. "He's all stitched up. Should heal just fine. There will definitely be some ugly scarring, but he's lucky you got him here in time."

Kate refuses to leave Seth's side the entire time he's out, even long after Rubia left to open the deli downstairs. She only ever leaves her seat to help clean up what she can and use the bathroom.

While Seth is asleep, she can't help but watch him. She used to do it a lot back when they were driving across Mexico, just the two of them, pulling unsuccessful heist after unsuccessful heist. Seth didn't sleep much then, especially not when he was sober, but whenever he did manage to get some rest, he slept like a goddamn rock.

He looked like a different man with his eyes closed, almost; still does. Not exactly peaceful, but almost younger, and less weighted. Kate thinks this is due to the fact that it's the only time his mouth isn't running.

She wonders if Seth will cover the inevitable scar on his shoulder with a tattoo one day, the same way he did the scar Richie left on his neck, and then thinks about what kind of tattoo he'd get if he does decide to.

It is nearly seven in the evening when Seth finally comes to, and the sun is beginning to set. Rubia is back upstairs after having just closed the deli for the day. The two of them share stories of their lives back in Texas, and Kate is surprised at how much it doesn't hurt to reminisce.

They both notice when his eyes flutter open. He blinks as he takes in his unfamiliar surroundings.

"Kate?" he says, his throat hoarse and voice straining.

Kate stands at the side of the pull out couch as Rubia fetches Seth a glass of water and places it on the end table on his other side.

"Hey," Kate smiles at him, tucking her hair behind her ear. "I'm glad you're not dead."

He looks down at the bandage on his shoulder, blood soaking through the gauze, but he doesn't say anything.

She hears the familiar sound of a car pulling up in front of the deli.

"Richie must be back. I should go get him and let him know you're up. He was really worried about you."

Rubia is already heading toward the door. "I'll get him," she says, offering them a moment to themselves.

The room is silent for a moment - there is so much Kate wants to say, but doesn't know how to find the words. It doesn't matter how much she endures; she doesn't think she will ever get used to almost losing someone.

"Thank you," he says, clearing his throat. "For saving my life."

"Rubia is the one you should thank."

Seth smirks, and it's obvious he had recognized the woman who had tended to his injury. "I'm sure she did it more for you than she did for me."

"I'm the reason anyone does anything for us," Kate teases, though both of them know she isn't wrong.

Silence befalls them again, but it's short lived this time, when Seth offers an inquisitive, "So?"

"So, what?" Kate arches an eyebrow, carefully filling the empty space next to him on the bed, and taking his hand in hers.

"So, you gonna marry me or not?"

Kate is silent; she hasn't forgotten about his proposal earlier, but the thought has been pushed to the back of her mind all day, and in the few moments that it dared to resurface, she'd just pushed it back, unsure that he had even meant it in the way that she thought.

"You not saying anything isn't helping me much here, princess."

She'll admit that this has never been the way she imagined someone asking for her hand in marriage, but she also hasn't given the idea any thought since before her family had ever left Bethel, and possibly before her mother died.

"Where's the jacket I was wearing?"

Kate glances across the room where she'd placed it on the back of a chair, a darker shade of grey in the places stained with his blood. Seth follows her gaze.

"Check the pocket," he tells her.

She does as he instructs and knows what to expect before she even pulls it out, her small fingers wrapping around a tiny velvet box.

Her heart nearly stops as she lifts her eyes to meet his, her voice catching in her throat when she speaks.

"When did you…?" she asks, trying to recall them ever being in the vicinity of a jewelry store. She doesn't consider the thought of him stealing the ring; he's too sentimental for that, not that he will ever admit to it.

"A few days ago," he confesses. "I've been wanting to ask you for awhile now, but I wanted the timing to be right. I had something planned and everything. Real romantic shit."

"'Real romantic shit,' huh?" she laughs, returning to her spot beside him.

"You just… I don't know. Something about last night just felt right. I don't know if it was the way you looked in the moonlight, or the way you just… I don't know, moved, or what."

She doesn't know how to respond to that, but can feel her face flush with heat. "Sap."

He ignores her comment, looking directly into her eyes. "You haven't opened the damn box or even answered my question yet."

Kate's gaze breaks away after a moment, dropping to the small velvet box in her hands. She opens it slowly. The ring is beautiful, which is admittedly a little surprising; Seth's tastes tend to range from simplistic and minimalistic to a little ostentatious.

He attempts to position himself in an almost-upright position, straining himself a little in the process. But before she could stop or chastise him for it, he takes the ring from her hand and slides the white gold band onto her finger.

Her lips crash onto his before he could say anything else, definitively giving him her answer; an answer she now realizes she had long before she knew there would be a question.

The door opens then, and they abruptly pull apart. Richie all but launches toward Seth, while Rubia disappears into one of the bedrooms, giving the three of them a little bit of privacy.

They set off again later that night, as not to further impost on Rubia in her home, even when she advises against it until Seth has recovered a little more. But they've dealt with - and will continue to deal with - much worse, and time is of the essence for them, and this isn't their home. It's easier on Richard if they leave while the sun is down anyway, and his aversion to sunlight isn't necessarily something they want to have to explain.

The three of them don't leave Cuetzalan, however, without further expressing their gratitude toward the former nurse. The boys repay her generously, and while she still seems disapproving of Kate's decision to stay with them, provides them with a couple of painkillers and wishes them luck upon their departure.

Kate sits in the front seat with Richie; it's a change from their usual routine, but Seth could use the extra space. They are about an hour outside town when Richard pulls over to the side of the road.

"Hold the fuck up," he says after putting the car into park. He turns his head to look at Seth in the backseat. "When the hell did this happen?"

Kate blushes, glancing over her shoulder at Seth, who is grinning at his brother smugly.

Richie looks between the two of them. "Are either of you planning on saying something?"

"It just happened, man. Soon as I woke up in that apartment."

"And you just weren't going to tell me?! Kate, I expect this from him…"

"Relax, Richard. You were going to be the first to know, man."

"At the very fucking least," Richie rolls his eyes. "Who the hell else would you tell?"

Richard, in a rather unexpected but not unbelievable twist, decides he's going to be the one to marry them and with a little forgery and culebra action, manages to become ordained.

"Are you sure this is even legal, Richard?" Seth asks when Richie surprises them with his news.

The younger Gecko shrugs. "Are you and Vanessa even legally divorced?"

"Technically speaking," he answers after a beat.

"Yeah, well. Technically speaking, no. But this is as legit as it's going to get for you, brother. And besides, nothing we do is legal, anyway."

He's not wrong.

Needless to say, it's not the wedding she's always dreamed of, but she can't say anything in her life has really gone as expected.

She's still getting married in a church, only it's an abandoned chapel in Mexico, and wearing a beautiful white gown, but dishonestly. She can't bring herself to care.

She and her groom arrive at the venue together, because they aren't about tradition, and together they've already survived the worst luck anyone could imagine.

The ceremony is small; she's managed to track down both Freddie, who really only agrees to attend for Kate, and Scott, who walks her down the aisle and gives her away.

None of it is official, technically speaking, but it feels real and it's theirs, and it's something that belongs to them that they don't have to take.

Richie looks at Kate as he asks her to take his brother as her husband, for better or worse, and then ruffles her hair and calls her "sis" when she says yes.

He turns to Seth and prompts him with the same question, and he watches her intently as he listens to his brother speak.

There is a universe filling the space between them and all around them, one where only this exists, this old, empty chapel and the people she loves.

It takes both Seth and Kate a moment to realize that Richie has finished speaking.

"You may now stop staring at the bride at least long enough to kiss her, dude," he repeats himself.

So he does.


End file.
